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Burka-Clad Woman
Photograph by Yoray Liberman/Getty Images
An Afghan woman in a burka crosses a street in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2004. These traditional head-to-toe garments have been vilified in the West as symbols of oppression, but even in post-Taliban Afghanistan, many women choose to continue wearing them.
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Kabul Hotel
Photograph by John Moore/Getty Images
A modern, glass-wrapped hotel rises behind the ruins of a war-ravaged building in Kabul, Afghanistan. Since the ouster of the Taliban regime in 2001, foreign aid and investment have fueled an unprecedented construction boom in Afghanistan, mainly in Kabul but in other parts of the country as well.
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Kabul Traffic
Photograph by John Moore/Getty Images
This 2006 photo of the old district in Kabul, Afghanistan, shows one of the effects of the influx of foreign capital following the expulsion of the Taliban. Thousands of people have bought cars with their newfound wealth, leading to hours-long traffic snarls on streets previously plied mainly by donkey carts and bicycles.
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Kabul Construction
Photograph by Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images
Afghan laborers install scaffolding on a building under construction in downtown Kabul in 2004. Economic conditions in Afghanistan have improved dramatically since the fall of the Taliban, but citizens are still plagued by weak infrastructure, even in Kabul, and high national unemployment, last measured at 40 percent.
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Kabul Market
Photograph by Steve McCurry
Mandawi bazaar, Kabul's busiest open-air market, bustles with shoppers and vendors. This sprawling network of narrow streets and shops managed to escape major damage during Afghanistan's decades of war.
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Afghanistan Mosque
Photograph by Steve McCurry
Deep ethnic and religious divides are briefly bridged at the Hazrat Ali mosque in Mazar-e Sharif, Afghanistan, where Sunni and Shiite alike come to pray. The shrine is believed by many to be the tomb of the Prophet Muhammad's son-in-law.
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Kabul National Museum
Photograph by Robert Nickelsberg/Liaison/Getty Images
A March 2000 image of the shuttered National Museum in Kabul shows the toll inflicted by decades of civil war. Many of the museum's treasures were removed and hidden in 1988 out of fear they would be looted or destroyed. Some were lost to war damage and the Taliban, but a large cache of artifacts survived. Many of the recovered items are on display in the traveling exhibition "Afghanistan: Hidden Treasures From the National Museum, Kabul."
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Man Praying
Photograph by Richard Vogel/Associated Press
A man prays outside Eid Gah, the largest mosque in Kabul. Built in 1893, Eid Gah's ceremonial square is a popular location for large gatherings and celebrations.
